Hey there everyone. So this is a thought I've been pondering for a long time, a very long time actually. About a couple years lol. Im the kind of person to where if I get really into a genre or style of music or band, I love seeing that specific thing succeed but its bittersweet to me because I sort of have a feeling of sadness seeing the style or band be over saturated and suddenly everyone jumps on the bandwagon of being in that scene or style of music.

Just my opinion and outlook lol not looking to start much of rant. Anyways to the point, what are you guys' opinion on the Industrial / EBM scene powering up and growing as a genre, maybe treading into the mainstream area? I know that Industrial was a bit popular in the 90's and has passed, so I'm talking about a brand new movement of EBM or Industrial.

No it was just a thought I had. I've seen some bands that have industrial influences go mainstream, but the actually EBM and Industrial scene itself is mostly underground. Just looking for outlooks on this thought.

industrial, as far as the industrial records scene started by Throbbing Gristle, was created as a protest of mainstream and out of hatred for acts such as 'the beatles' so..many music scenes like this were called 'counter culture' because they rebelled against the music industries standards and ideas that laid out very clearly and arbitrarily what 'good music' was..

industrial, as far as the industrial records scene started by Throbbing Gristle, was created as a protest of mainstream and out of hatred for acts such as 'the beatles' so..many music scenes like this were called 'counter culture' because they rebelled against the music industries standards and ideas that laid out very clearly and arbitrarily what 'good music' was..

Yeah i knew about the background of it slightly, thats why i thought if it DID go mainstream it would kind of be contradicting to its origin. This is one reason why I don't see how Industrial and EBM could flow into the mainstream unless someone completely flipped the meaning behind it or something like that...

It all depends on your definition of mainstream. Mainstream is just which marketing companies waste the most money pushing their shit in your face.

All I ever saw when I went out to gigs when I was younger was Combichrist, Cesium 137, Decoded Feedback, Grendel, Psyche, that sort of thing. It was kind of a golden era, but now a lot of those clubs are just gone. There are still some great groups touring now, Haujobb, Puppy and VNV are at it right this moment, Assemblage, Birthday Massacre. They're just not shoving it in people's faces until it's too late and all they can think is "what/who the fuck?"

Trent tried his best. This discussion feels 20 years too late? There's no money anymore, what is success? Etc. But then you have bands like 3Teeth which seem to be gaining in popularity, and their marketing (which I am quite impressed by, and I don't like 'marketing') makes me feel that some kind of resurgence is possible.

Trent tried his best. This discussion feels 20 years too late? There's no money anymore, what is success? Etc. But then you have bands like 3Teeth which seem to be gaining in popularity, and their marketing (which I am quite impressed by, and I don't like 'marketing') makes me feel that some kind of resurgence is possible.

Keluar is a band that I feel could/should have more popularity.

Yeah its kinda late lol but then again I'm 15 so it was kinda hard to discuss then yeah i feel like that certain artists benefit mainly from drawing little influences from industrial, instead of actually making the genre.

I personally think that if someone used the modern marketing and way of being an artist and redefined the whole industrial sound, it could see some resurgence. but then by gaining popularity you could be contradicting what industrial music was made for as stated above, to go against mainstream

It all depends on your definition of mainstream. Mainstream is just which marketing companies waste the most money pushing their shit in your face.

All I ever saw when I went out to gigs when I was younger was Combichrist, Cesium 137, Decoded Feedback, Grendel, Psyche, that sort of thing. It was kind of a golden era, but now a lot of those clubs are just gone. There are still some great groups touring now, Haujobb, Puppy and VNV are at it right this moment, Assemblage, Birthday Massacre. They're just not shoving it in people's faces until it's too late and all they can think is "what/who the fuck?"

I do agree with that to a point, i feel like some music genuinely does catch on with people and then it grows and grows. but i could be wrong, knowing the money side of the whole music industry it could be another marketing scheme in its whole.

Yeah I've noticed a few modern industrial, dark electro groups that seem to have a well built marketing promotion plan and a dedicated fan base. They're still touring and they still have dedicated fans, but i don't think they will go much further as their music isn't evolving or changing that much. just my opinion though

I do think though that you don't have to necessarily shove music in peoples faces to see success in the scene although with the clutter of bands in the music industry today you pretty much have to convince people to listen to your work

Im the kind of person to where if I get really into a genre or style of music or band, I love seeing that specific thing succeed but its bittersweet to me because I sort of have a feeling of sadness seeing the style or band be over saturated and suddenly everyone jumps on the bandwagon of being in that scene or style of music.

if you mean commercial success, the closest it ever got to that was NIN, and NIN is just a bunch of borrowed (almost to the point of embarrassment) influences repackaged as pop music, and the only thing you can use to explain your taste in music to anyone unfamiliar with the term. "It's like NIN, except not rock at all, more banging on stuff, and a lot noisier, and with less whining".

Industrial, at its best, is difficult music, and tends not to lend itself to broad appeal. That said, there's a lot of stuff coming out of the woodwork recently though, seems like a small swell, if not a resurgence, in stuff more born out of the Coil/Cabaret Voltaire/Portion Control/more classic, less dance music oriented side of things, like High Functioning Flesh, Youth Code (though I don't really care much for it), Timeghost, etc...

Industrial Techno also seems to be on the upswing in the last few years. Lots of good stuff going on, but I doubt it'll ever take off into the realm of commercial success.

Like was observed above, though, I think talking about this now is a little late, industrial had its best shot at "mainstream success" in the 1990's, but then again, as far as the carrying on of influences go, Dave Ogilvie *DID* do work for Carlie Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe" so maybe that's the influence of industrial working its way into commercial success? or maybe the closest it got was when Surgeon wore this shirt and opened for Lady Gaga?

it was actually a type of music before it a word..the term 'industrial' came from performance artist Monty Cazzaza in reference to his friends Throbbing Gristle. Before them there was people like NON and Z'ev, and with NON there's also Boyd Rice, David Tibet, Death in June and a whole other realm of influence..

In the beginning, it was music that involved people beating on metal objects like oil drums and car doors with lead pipes and sledgehammers and shit, some aspect of this is in most of what people know of as industrial though.

ha, I'm down. We might be in a post-industrial phase of history though..

I feel like SPK had a good idea of what industrial was, before machine age voodoo. TG to me did a lot of shit, experimental noise and also dance music when Genesis lost his friggin mind in the mid-80s.

It's funny how so many fans want Industrial and other forms of darker music to stay "underground" when the cat is 30 years out of the bag and yet there's still so many bands 90%+ of people have never even heard of.

Very few people give a second thought to the people who dedicate their time to helping get this music out there in the first place.

More attention in a certain music scene means more money and more labels willing to invest in it, if Industrial makes it more mainstream, so be it.

Look at what happened with Nirvana, they hit gold big time and suddenly people were signing "underground" bands left, right and centre.
As a side effect, this also pushed the 90es, "second" wave of punk, without that, I wouldn't be the person I am.

There will always be the ones who prefer music to be solely for a small elite of "true" fans, they can enjoy their misery.

Last edited by Automageddon; 15-12-2014 at 12:33 PM..
Reason: grammar and shit

Isn't making industrial music counter-productive though, in that sense. Like with early heavy metal or punk, they didn't have such a clear backdrop of ideas and influences to work with, it was a lot more personal expression and creativity and as time went on these cliche's began to take over about cyberpunk and allusions to 1984 and other dystopian fiction..

I think what was interesting about industrial initially wasn't that it was 'industrial' but more that it was shocking and very visceral/violent..However, these 'shock' concepts have been played out to the point that the most shocking and controversial artists these days are pop stars like lady-gagag or whatever meth-addled 'singer' is in the spotlight at the moment..

I agree, but I'd like to think there is more value to it than just being shocking or controversial - I think the real value lies in it's place in culture and history, that it was a reaction to the current music and general environment. I guess live performance is the way that it made it's lasting impact. After it's peak, it is just something that can be defined more and crafted/sold. I personally think that what is important is the vibe and attitude underlining the music, and I'd like to see more of that going on. Industrial (the sounds, genre definition) was just the surface sound/end result. Kinda like punk. I like that people can hear something like Death Grips and agree that there is punk attitude in there, even though the surface sounds are nothing like the classic sound of 'punk'.

Isn't making industrial music counter-productive though, in that sense. Like with early heavy metal or punk, they didn't have such a clear backdrop of ideas and influences to work with, it was a lot more personal expression and creativity and as time went on these cliche's began to take over about cyberpunk and allusions to 1984 and other dystopian fiction..

I think what was interesting about industrial initially wasn't that it was 'industrial' but more that it was shocking and very visceral/violent..However, these 'shock' concepts have been played out to the point that the most shocking and controversial artists these days are pop stars like lady-gagag or whatever meth-addled 'singer' is in the spotlight at the moment..

You're really over-generalising and making huge presumptions about the motives behind the inspiration of these bands, and I can't answer for them. You'd have to ask them or at least be a little more specific about which bands you're referring to. When I said Industrial, I meant "Industrial" as an easy catch-all term. You said yourself that we're in a post-Industrial phase. I dunno, I can't be arsed with getting hung up on what you want to call it or not, whatever, it's about the music not a name.

I'm not really sure what your second point wants tbh? Kinda seems like cake and eat it to me. On the one hand you sound like you want to be shocked, but you admit it's played out now and you only find stuff like Gaga controversial...? Did I understand that correctly?